A Fairhaven charter boat captain died Sunday after his 25-foot boat
capsized in turbulent water in Quick's Hole, throwing him and four
passengers into 60-degree seas.

Kenneth J. Murray, 50, of Fairhaven, the skipper of The Last Call,
showed no vital signs within 30 minutes of being taken out of the water
and placed on the deck of a nearby fishing boat, Playtime. Efforts to
revive Mr. Murray by two Coast Guardsmen - an emergency medical
technician and a rescue swimmer - were unsuccessful.

The four passengers on The Last Call, who were fishing customers of
Mr. Murray's, were rescued from the water by another nearby boat,
the Mary & Phyllis, and survived the accident. The Coast Guard
identified the passengers as Joe Mazurek, Paul Helmle, Richard Wezaeo
and Robert Brunish. No address was available for the four men.

The two fishing boats brought the passengers and Mr. Murray to
Menemsha. The four passengers were taken by Tri-Town ambulances to
Martha's Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs, where they were treated
and released.

No report was available yesterday on Mr. Murray's cause of
death. His body, after being taken to Menemsha, was transferred to the
medical examiner.

The tragedy occurred quickly late Sunday morning in the relatively
narrow passage of Quick's Hole, which separates Pasque and
Nashawena island in the Elizabeth Islands chain. Quick's Hole,
which is due north from Menemsha and due south from New Bedford, extends
about one and a half miles north and south, and is three-quarters of a
mile across at its widest point.

The Last Call, which previously had experienced engine trouble, had
lost power and was being towed by another boat, Pops Toy, according to
Petty Officer Nicholas Prescott of Coast Guard Station Menemsha.

Mr. Prescott said the wind was blowing 20 knots out of the north
northeast, running against the tide. As a result, seas that were one to
three feet in Vineyard Sound were swelling six to eight feet in
Quick's Hole. He said the tow rope apparently was too short, which
failed to give The Last Call enough slack to ride the waves.

Water had come into the boat, leading the four passengers to go to
one side of the vessel where it had accumulated to bail out the water. A
subsequent wave flipped the boat all the way over, Mr. Prescott said.

Petty Officer Yolanda Rogers of Coast Guard Group Woods Hole said
the four passengers were wearing life vests, but that Mr. Murray was not
wearing one.

Ms. Rogers said Mr. Murray was aware that he had been having a
problem with The Last Call's battery, but that the boat was
carrying spare batteries.

Mr. Prescott, who was on duty at Menemsha Sunday, said that the
Coast Guard received a mayday call at 11:45 a.m. He redirected a 21-foot
boat from the Menemsha station, already en route to Aquinnah, to
Quick's Hole. The 110-foot cutter Tybee from Group Woods Hole and
an HH-60 helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod also responded
to Quick's Hole.

The 21-foot boat, under the direction of Bosuns Mate 2nd Class
Jeremy Stephens, ferried the medical technician from the Tybee to the
Playtime. The helicopter subsequently lowered the rescue swimmer and an
emergency defibrillator to the deck of the Playtime. Neither Coast
Guardsmen could revive Mr. Murray.

The four passengers, taken by ambulance from Menemsha, were treated
at Martha's Vineyard Hospital and released. The men subsequently
were taken via the New England Fast Ferry to New Bedford, where two of
them were interviewed by members of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office
in Providence, R.I. Ms. Rogers said the capsized boat was taken to New
Bedford.

John (Bucky) Burrows, a seasoned Vineyard charter fisherman, was in
his 18-foot boat about a mile away when The Last Call capsized. Mr.
Burrows said the wind, combined with the ebbing tide, had created
difficult sea conditions at Quick's Hole.

"The wind was blowing out of the northeast or east northeast
at 20-25 knots," Mr. Burrows said. "It was blowing much
harder right there," given that two islands funnel the wind down
the channel.

"It was a very tough situation," he said.

Nonetheless, Mr. Burrows said a lot of fishing boats were near and
in Quick's Hole when The Last Call capsized. He and other skippers
listened to the emergency traffic on the radio. Within an hour, he said,
word had spread that a drowning had occurred.

"Everybody's pretty upset about it," he said.

For his part, Mr. Burrows plotted his return to the Vineyard on
Sunday carefully, traveling along the southern shores of the Elizabeth
Islands to Woods Hole. There he hooked into the protective wake of a
Steamship Authority ferry and followed it back to the Vineyard.

New England Fast Ferry, which began service last June between New
Bedford and the Vineyard, actually traveled through Quick's Hole
during its first two months of operation, company president Michael
Glasfeld said.

Mr. Glasfeld said the company found the relatively open passage of
Quick's Hole to be far less tricky than Woods Hole, which combines
a sharply bending channel with nearby rocks.

Even so, Mr. Glasfeld said, the company later chose Woods Hole as
its usual route. Contributing to the decision: the flock of recreational
fishing boats that congregate at Quick's Hole in the summer, along
with a greater propensity to become fogged in. Still, Mr. Glasfeld said,
the company's fast-ferry skippers still use Quick's Hole
when conditions warrant, usually about every two weeks.

Another longtime fisherman and fly-fishing guide in Vineyard waters,
Sam Bernard, said the movement of water in the passages of the Elizabeth
Islands between Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay "kind of acts like
a big sink. I've actually seen the channel markers pulled under
and then popping up, like the Jaws thing."

Mr. Bernard said the tow boat may not have been going fast enough to
maintain its steerage when the accident occurred.

"I certainly respect that hole and Robinson's Hole
[another passage in the Elizabeth Islands], but it's probably not
as treacherous as Woods Hole," Mr. Bernard said.

Mr. Burrows said there is never a guarantee that a boat is going to
stay right side up. Years ago, he capsized his own boat in Alaska.

"When you go out on the water, it's a very unforgiving
environment in any kind of a compromised situation," he said.
"That's how accidents happen. It's a compound of
mistakes."